


He Remembered

by ShinobMai



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: At this point, BAMF Ahsoka Tano, i just love making him sad, look im convinced that ahsoka is on a whole new level, tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27112523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinobMai/pseuds/ShinobMai
Summary: Vader dreams are haunted by the ones he has lost. He knew that this sleep cycle would be no different. The question would be, who was it going to be tonight?"Hello, Master. It's been awhile."
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	He Remembered

_“Ahsoka, a very wise Jedi once said, ‘Nothing happens by accident’ It is the will of the Force that you are at my side.”_

Vader was certain at this point in his life that the force loved to torment him. It was perhaps the only thing he was certain of. How else could he explain his life? What he was seeing and hearing now.

He didn't think of her often or dream of her regularly. It was the few small blessings he could count. But when he did, his thoughts ran away from him. Turned on him. Sometimes his dreams were filled with pain and accusation fell from her lips and all he could do was stand there and take it. For all of it was true. Something he'd never admit to while awake. Other times he’d see her over the years. Moments that made him ache to have it back. To have her at his side as it had once been. 

It seemed that tonight would be one of those nights. It felt as if he was the audience to his own memory. He could see her now as she had been when he had first met her. Young and naive to the ways of war. Stepping off that transport with excitement in her eyes.

_"You're stuck with me Skyguy."_

He could hear those words echo around him. Words filled with her conviction and snippyness.

_"You would have never made it as Obi-Wan's Padawan. But you might make it as mine. "_

His own voice echoed back. Or what was his voice. He hardly recognized it. What he did recognize was those were the moments, words, that tied her fate to his.

He felt his dream shift and found himself looking at an obliterated factory. Geonosis. He remembered her words well.

_"I'm sorry Master. We can’t make it out."_

He remembered the confusion and fear he had heard at her words. The terror and desperation that he wouldn't be able to find her in time under that factory. The anger at Master Luminara for suggesting that it was time to let go. The happiness and relief when he was reunited with her in time. The pride in her for doing what many could never. Willing sacrificing herself to save the masses. A true Jedi his Padawan was growing into.

_"I knew you would come looking for me."_ She had said with absolute faith that he always would.

It shifted once more.

_"When I was out there, alone, all I had was your training. And the lessons you taught me, and because of you, I did survive. And not only that, I was able to lead others to survive as well.”_

_“I don’t know what to say.”_

_“I do.Thank you, Master."_

Trandoshans had hunted his Padawan for sport. A game for their amusement while he had been helpless to do anything. He had been wrecked with guilt. Full of fear that she was gone for good. He still remembered the relief of seeing her on the landing plate form. Alive and standing proud. Her words had filled him with admiration for her and gratitude that he was the one privileged enough to be her Master.

Sidious could strike him with lighting all he wanted but he'd never admit to the fact that he had personally made Trandoshan hunters a target to be eliminated by the Empire. He never forgave the pain that they had put her through. As brave as she had been, he could still see the haunted look in her eyes. No, he wanted them to feel what she felt in return.

A blue image shown before him of a togruta on the cusp of adulthood.

_"Hello Master. It's been a while."_

Her voice was a bit lower. She was taller and her leeku had grown in the time they had been separated. She had taken to wearing a new outfit as well, Mandalorian in design. Armour visible, something she never had worn before. Her traditional headdress is long gone. 

He had been surprised to see her. He had almost given up hope that he would see her anytime soon. But there she was in front of him. He had felt a new wave of hopefulness. She was going to come back. Back to the Order. Back to him. Everything was going to be the way it should be.

_"Anakin. Good luck."_

They had been so certain that they would see each other again soon.

Foolish.

It went black. He knew what this was.

_"Perhaps I was wrong."_

_"It wouldn't be the first time."_

_"Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him."_

_"Then I will avenge his death."_

_"Revenge is not the Jedi way."_

_"I am no Jedi."_

Their conversation would always stay with him. No she wasn't a Jedi in name but she was in every other way conceivable. She shone so bright in the Light that even the Sith Temple couldn't dim it. Her sabers are pure locked with his blood red one. Her movements gracefully contrast with his sharp swipes.

His padawan had grown strong and powerful. She had surpassed all that he had once dreamed of her being.

_"I won't leave you. Not this time.”_

_"Then you will die."_

He expected to wake up. He wanted to wake up. He couldn't take much more of this. He didn't want to think of her dead in that temple. The force wouldn't be as curled to make him relive all this just to show him that would it?

Yes it would. He readily thought. After all, it forced him to keep losing her. He remembered Mortis. The white of her eyes. Her end of the bond gone from his mind. He remembered all the close calls. He remembered her leaving the temple. Leaving him. His crashed hope that she had survived Order 66 and he could have her back. She wasn't a Jedi anymore yet her name had been on the termination list. Her crashed ship left forgotten.

Yes the force was cruel but no less than you deserve a voice whispered.

Before he could place the voice, the dark started to rescind and a bright light filled his vision.Not the artificial lights of his ship but the light of a sun. He could see white walls made out of stone. The architecture of a temple but one he did not recognize. It was stunning. He could tell it remained untouched by the Dark Side. Light seemed to seep out from everywhere. Not even the Jedi temples had felt like this towards the end of the Clone Wars.

_"You don't belong here."_

He froze inside his suit. That voice. _Her voice_. Impossible. 

Slowly he turned around and there she was.

Tall and proud. Decked out in white cloth. He could see some armour and the hilts of her sabers. But what drew his attention was the staff she was holding. It practically hummed with power in the force. His eyes met hers through his red lenses. To his surprise she was looking at him. Not through him like so many of his other dreams of her.

_"Why are you here?"_ She demanded an answer.

He found that he could not answer her. His voice didn't seem to want to work. She was here. Alive. He was filled with wonder then anger once more. He reached for his saber but found it gone.

_"You're in my realm Vader. You have no real power here unless I grant it. Now answer me. Why are you here?"_

Her realm? He looked around once more quickly and back at her. Taking it all in, her in, as one. He could find no difference in the force. It was as if she was an extension of it. 

_"You're dead."_ , he deflected her questions.

A thoughtful look came over her face and she tilted her head to the side before she smiled at him.

_"Am I?"_

She mocked him.

_"Yes. I killed you."_

_"Did you? Or did you just think you did?"._ She questioned him.

He growled at her. _"How else would you explain this?"_

_"The force works in mysterious ways."_ She reiterated the age old saying. A slight teasing smile making its way to her lips. _"It's time for you to go."_ Her staff hit the floor once a bright light started to come from it.

_"Wait-"_ , he grappled with what he wanted to say. But wait for what was the real question. Wait so he could ask his questions? He had so many. How had she survived? Where was she? What was she? For if she had surpassed his dreams of her long ago in that Sith Temple, here she had obliterated them. He had to squint his eyes from the light growing brighter. Encompassing her in a beautiful halo. Or wait so he could rage at her? 

_"I'll find you Ahsoka."_

The words came out threateningly through his voice modulator. He wasn't even sure it was a threat. It felt more like a promise. But for what he wasn't sure. A rematch? His chance to finally end her? Or a chance to beg her forgiveness?

He had to fully look away from her as his vision began to white out.

_"Not in this lifetime. Goodbye Anakin."_

He woke with a start.

It was just a dream. 

Later he would think of what he saw and heard at the end of it. The certainty in her tone as she bid him goodbye and he vowed he would prove her wrong.

  
  


_"I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka."_

He had once promised her.This time he had promised to find her.

He never was good at keeping his promises.


End file.
